New Orleans is home to one of the first public school systems in the South, but the city has historically educated certain segments of the city rather than the public at large, an extensive new report by The Data Center describes. In order to provide a high-quality education that's accessible to all residents citywide, the report argues that public schools need a mix of more students, community engagement and democratic control.

The new report uses scholarly research, news articles and data from the Louisiana Department of Education to offer insight into the history of the city's K-12 education system. The research released Friday (Nov. 30) is the sixth and final report in a series of reports, called "The New Orleans Prosperity Index: Tricentennial Edition," completed by The Data Center this year.

The report, titled "New Orleans Public Schools: An Unrealized Democratic Ideal," argues there has "never" been a time when all residents of the city participated in the public school system together due to a legacy of colonialism, chattel slavery, and segregation. However, professors Brian Beabout of University of New Orleans and Kyshun Webster of University of Holy Cross say there's opportunity now, with "historically high optimism" citywide about the city's public school system.

Here's a glimpse at the reasons researchers cited for why the public school system has maintained social hierarchy, and how residents and policymakers can foster progress.

Historic racism has kept all residents from participating in public schools together

This chart displays New Orleans public school enrollment from 1960 to 1980. Provided by The Data Center.

Historic racism has kept all residents from participating in public schools together

The report traces the root cause of inequity in the city's public school system to its earliest days in 1841, when the very first public schools were held in repurposed buildings. Former slaveholder John McDonogh bequeathed his wealth to build 30 new schools for the city's children in 1858. The McDonogh schools served white students and free children of color, but they excluded enslaved children.

Then, the Union military collaborated with various civilian and military organizations to establish schools for recently freed children in 1862, the report says. By 1864, the military opened seven all-black public schools in New Orleans amid the Civil War.

The 1867 Louisiana Constitution required public school integration that began to occur in 1870, but the report notes "white resistance" to integration persisted, leading to three days of riots in 1874. The progress of integration was stalled after the Southern aristocracy resumed control of state government due to the 1876 U.S. presidential election.

Several political actions in the Jim Crow era, including the U.S. Supreme Court's 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson to uphold the "separate but equal" doctrine, legally established racial segregation. Most commonly, laws required separate schools for children of each race, the report says. Likewise, the state government started to drastically cut school tax rates by 80 percent in 1877. New Orleans' school board in 1900 restricted African American enrollment in public schools to the first five grades even though black people had attended high school for nearly a generation, researchers stated.

New Orleans' school system has experienced racial and socioeconomic inequity

This chart displays the average ACT score for public and private schools in Orleans Parish by race/ethnicity from 2013 to 2017. Provided by The Data Center.

New Orleans' school system has experienced racial and socioeconomic inequity

Researchers pointed out that African Americans still made some strides within segregation. The opening of McDonogh No. 35 in 1917 and Booker T. Washington trade school in 1942, for instance, increased black high school enrollment "30-fold" between 1918 and 1940, the report stated.

Even so, the report said desegregation of public schools became a "chief concern" in New Orleans in the Civil Rights era. Nationally, a series of court hearings for and against desegregation, as well as several protests, led to the U.S. Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision ordering school boards involved in the case to desegregate "with all deliberate speed." However, researchers stated New Orleans schools didn't begin desegregating until 1960.

That year, a federal judge supervised the integration of four six-year-old black girls into two formerly white schools in New Orleans. Researchers stated those events spurred "ugly white-led riots" and initiated a mass exodus of white families in the 1960s and 1970s to private schools and suburban public schools. Somewhat later and over a longer period of time, middle-income black families also departed the public schools, the report stated.

"Schools faced declining public support and came to be seen more as charitable causes rather than shared public institutions," researchers stated.

The report stated white and middle-class flight provided leadership and professional opportunities for black people who had been shut out of most public schools since Reconstruction. The black community in Algiers, for instance, created the L.B. Landry High School, and researchers stated many black schools became "vital community hubs."

Even so, researchers pointed out the loss of political and taxpayer support accompanied by white and middle-class flight negatively affected public school students. A higher percentage of New Orleans public high schoolers and 4th graders by spring 2005 scored lower on state standardized tests than the percentage of students as a whole statewide.

Post-Katrina education reform spurred debate on the role of government in schools

Gary Jones, left, president of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Education Superintendent John White discuss a recommendation to BESE's plan to fund Louisiana's public schools in 2017 in Baton Rouge. (Photo by Sarah Gamard, Manship School News Service)

Post-Katrina education reform spurred debate on the role of government in schools

Researchers pointed out the "swift passage" of Act 35 by the Louisiana Legislature in November 2005 shifted New Orleans' public school control from a locally-elected, predominantly black school board to a statewide, mostly white Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state's Recovery School District gained control of 112 schools in the city and signed charter contracts with nonprofit organizations to manage those schools as long as the private organizations showed "satisfactory academic and financial performance."

Researchers stated the reform also led to the end of the contract with the United Teachers of New Orleans, and the firing of more than 7,000 employees of the Orleans Parish School Board. The reform also created exemptions from teacher certification requirements and a rapid expansion of the RSD into the daily operation of public schools in the city.

The report stated the post-Katrina era has also led to a "hardening of political positions" about public education in New Orleans that is largely dominated by the "ascendant school reform coalitions versus newly marginalized traditional education and civil rights communities."

Meanwhile, researchers pointed out that more young people in the city are neither in school nor working. According to data spanning 2011 to 2015, roughly 16 percent of all residents ages 16 - 24 were neither in school nor working. The report stated 87 percent of these "opportunity youth" are African American and 82 percent of them were 20 years or older.

What issues currently affect New Orleans public school students?

Terrapin Flyer, Creative Commons

What issues currently affect New Orleans public school students?

Today, that inequity can still be seen in a number of outcomes connected to the city's K-12 schools, the report says. During the 2014-15 school year, 60 percent of public school students in 3rd - 8th grade met proficiency targets on state-mandated tests. Researchers stated the disaggregated data shows that 77 percent of white public school students met this target, and only 58 percent of students of color did. "Black and Hispanic 16-24 year-olds are still three to four times more likely than their white peers to not have a high school diploma nor be working towards one," the report stated.

Researchers also noted the following statistics:

Teachers of color are vastly under-represented relative to the student body; 58 percent of teachers and 91 percent of students are non-white.

The few white students in New Orleans public schools are concentrated in schools with selective admissions requirements, with low percentages of low-income families, and where more teachers have graduate degrees.

There is an uneven distribution of experienced teachers. The report identified six schools where more than half of teachers had at least 15 years of experience. In another group of 32 schools, most teachers had less than four years of experience.

The school choice system requires students to travel often to distant school campuses, so schools are spending between $172 and $2,405 annually per student on buses and transportation. The highest transportation expenses are often borne by schools serving the neediest students whose families are more likely to lack private transportation.

Accessibility is a concern because 31 percent of school facilities are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In order to make gains in the system, the report identified three things that should occur in the city.